1. Profile and deburr the blade, and pre-drill the holes for fasteners.

2. Scribe parallel lines (.025” works for me) on both the edge and the end of the tang.

3. Using a smaller diameter contact wheel (in my case, 5”), hollow grind some of the material from the tang up to the point where the hollow just touches the outside of the scribed parallel lines on the tang.

4. With a flat platen backing the belt on the grinder, grip the tip of the blade with a small Vise-Grip.

5. I use a blueprint magnet to grip the tang on steel blades. On Talonite or other non-ferrous materials, I use an ironwood push stick with a pin set in the end. The pin engages one of the drilled holes in the tang.

6. Starting with a coarser grit (80 or 120), begin removing material, checking often to make sure that things are staying symmetrical. I try to hold the angle of the tang against the platen so that I am removing material from the end of the tang all the way through the full ricasso area. This eliminates some serious geometry problems when it come time to fit bolsters.
NOTE: although things proceed more slowly if you use a finer grit like 80 or 120 for this job, the scratches that tapering will put in the ricasso area are a whole lot easier to clean up than those made by 36, 50, or 60 grit belts!!!

7. Dunk the whole works in your water bucket frequently so it doesn’t get too hot to hold.

8. Don’t remove too much from one side without flipping things over, and removing a similar amount from the other side. Check your work against a straightedge; you should not see any daylight from the tip of the tang all the way through the ricasso area.

9. By now, you should have ground evenly into the scribed lines on each side of the tang.

10. The finished taper should be smooth and flat.

11. When your grind removes the parallel line on each side at the end of the tang, and clears the ricasso area at the other end, I would recommend taking the time now to clean up the ricasso on each side. This is all done before grinding the bevels on the blade. I use a 45 Norax belt and a pretty light touch on the platen for this job. It is easy to put an unintentional nick somewhere you don’t want it, so move slowly. You can see such a nick on the closeup below.

Take your time, pay attention, and don’t take off too much at one time. Check your work often, and expect to scrap your first couple of blades.
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